


light after dark

by punchbowls



Series: beat the devil (these are my friends) [4]
Category: IT (1990), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:53:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27405340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punchbowls/pseuds/punchbowls
Relationships: Bill Denbrough & Richie Tozier
Series: beat the devil (these are my friends) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974877
Kudos: 5





	light after dark

ITs guts and blood surround Bill as he squeezes his hands and fingers around ITs life force. ITs bleeding everywhere and  _ should  _ be dying, but ITs not, and Bill is drowning. He’s drowning in IT. HIs clothes and his body are soaked with IT, he can taste IT in his nose and mouth, choking him. IT’s killing him instead, IT’s killing his wife and his friends. 

Through his clogged ears, he hears Richie scream in sudden pain, Bill’s name dying on his lips. Bill tries to scream too, to call out to him, but more of IT fills mouths and all that comes out is a loud gurgle. He chokes and cries because soon all he can feel is IT around him. There’s no air, nothing, only IT surrounding him, engulfing him in darkness. IT shakes him and he can hear IT calling his name in the back of his head and Bill sobs. 

Everything is dark and cold and he’s alone. He feels so cold and alone like he had after Georgie died, sitting between his parents on the couch. Alone. All there is is the black, the cold, and ITs voice screaming his name. ITs mocking him now, using the voices of his friends that IT’s certainly killed by now.

_ “BILL!”  _ IT screams in Richie’s voice now.

Bill curls up and covers his ears. “Go away!” he cries as he’s shaken violently. 

“Wake up, Bill!” Richie's voice shouts. 

With one more shake, Bill is yanked out of the nightmare and nearly collides with Richie as he sits up with a scream dying on his lips. 

“Richie?” he asks.

“It’s okay, Bill-”

“ _ IT’s okay?! _ ” 

“No! No, no, shit, no, IT’s dead-  _ you’re  _ okay, everything’s okay,” Richie says. His voice is shaky. 

“It’s  _ dark-”  _ Bill says, it’s wet too,  _ like ITs blood all over him- _

“Hang on, hang on,” Richie says and Bill feels the bed dip and lurch as Richie moves. Bill panics as his presence moves away from him  _ because what if IT gets Richie and Bill can’t find him again- and IT’s already got Eddie and Audra and  _ please  _ not Richie too- _

But in a few seconds, Bill has to blink his eyes to the light that flicks on from the lamp on the nightstand. He blinks them open to see Richie, squinting behind upside down glasses as his eyes adjust to the warm light. Richie, awake and unharmed, in a Back to the Future III t-shirt and flannel pajama pants. His hair is wild from sleep and he frowns as he takes off his glasses to put them on the right way. His face is older now, lines appearing here and there, but in the moment, he looks just like he had when they were kids that summer, like all the times he would waltz into the Denbrough house to stake out a sleepover, like all those nights where he made Bill feel less alone than he felt he ever had. He looks like his best friend who saved him from loneliness and IT over and over again. He still is best friend and doing just the same, almost 35 years later. 

The sight of Richie and the memories and emotions it brings hits Bill in the small handful of seconds it takes for him to turn on the light and fix his glasses. Bill tears up instantly and Richie’s face is washed with concern when he notices. He closes the distance between them and they meld into a tight embrace. 

“I thought I lost you, I thought IT got you,” Bill chokes out. 

“IT didn’t Big Bill, I’m right here,” Richie assures him. “We killed IT and Ben made sure there’s no heirs to the Evil Queen.” 

Bill nods into his shirt, unable to say anything else. 

“Sorry if I scared you,” he apologies quietly as they separate. 

Richie smiles at him sadly. “‘S alright. We’re pretty used to it.”

Bill nods, understanding. They  _ all  _ wake up like this, still. It’s awful, but at least they haven’t forgotten each other, and as long as that hasn’t happened, they can and will be there for each other in moments like these. 

“I’m going to take a shower,” Bill tells him. He can still feel remnants of IT on him.

Richie nods and moves back to his hotel bed so Bill can grab a t-shirt and his sweatpants to change into. 

When Bill gets into the shower he scrubs his whole body until his skin is raw under the hot water. He soaks in the warmth and takes in the clean scent of the hotel soap as he washes away the sting of the dream. He’s clean, ITs dead, he’s not suffocating in ITs remains, and Richie is alive in the next room. ITs gone for good, and they defeated IT. 

When he gets out of the shower, Richie’s still awake, but zoned out on his bed. He snaps to attention when Bill steps out of the bathroom and rubs his eyes. 

“You good?” he asks. 

“Yeah, you didn’t have to stay up,” Bill says. He didn’t know exactly how long he’d been in the shower, but it’d been longer than he’d like to admit. 

Richie just snorted and waved a hand as he stood up. “Wasn’t going back to bed with this full of a bladder,” he says. 

Bill smiles slightly as Richie disappears into the bathroom. Sure, Richie might need to use the toilet, but Bill knows he stayed up for him. He dumps his sweat-soaked pjs on the top of his suitcase, too tired to really put them away, and collapses back onto his bed. He looks across the room and lets his eyes wander on the evidence of his and Richie’s lives. 

The bathrobe draped on the end of Richie’s bed is one he stole from Eddie, and he sleeps in it when he’s missing Eddie more than usual. There’s a folded piece of paper from Eddie that Richie keeps in his pocket during the day and reads each night before he goes to sleep. There’s a package of junk food from Beverly and Ben on the nightstand that they gave to Bill and Richie before their film trip. Both of them have clothes designed by Beverly that they wear on the regular too. Bill has all sorts of things he keeps with him that reminds him of Audra, who couldn’t come this time because she’s already working on another project. Mike and Stan are in the adjoining hotel room next to them, resting up before they get interviewed for their expertise in history and birds that contributed to the film.

They’re all safe and together, even separated. ITs dead and gone, and they’ve reclaimed the lives IT stole from them. They’re living loud, their hearts are beating, and they’re full of everything IT stood against. Love. 

Richie leaves the bathroom light on and flops down next to Bill and kicks his shins lightly. 

“Quit hogging the whole mattress,” he says.

“You have a whole bed to yourself,” Bill says, but he’s already shuffling over to make more room. 

“YoU hAve a whOle BeD to YouRsELf,” Richie mocks, face muffled in a pillow as he adjusts his ridiculously long legs. 

Bill laughs quietly as Richie takes off his glasses and shuts out the lamp on the nightstand. 

“Night, Bill.”

“Goodnight, Richie.”

Bill watches Richie in the dim light from the bathroom when his eyes are closed and his breathing’s evened out. He takes in Richie’s peaceful expression and the way his chest moves as he breathes, and when Bill’s satisfied, he too falls back to sleep.


End file.
